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ESX IP STORAGE TROUBLESHOOTING BEST PRACTICE

VMware has released a new White paper about ESXi IP storage troubleshooting.

In this paper, we:
• Describe how you can analyze packet traces to identify functional and performance issues in an
ESX IP storage environment.
• Compare packet capture alternatives, and explain why we recommend an inline optical network
tap connected to a packet capture system.
• Present the challenges of 10G packet capture, and describe key features of commercial 10G
capture solutions.
• Describe the design of an inexpensive, self-assembled 10G packet capture solution optimized for
troubleshooting that you can build relatively easily. We also describe our experience with multiple
prototypes of this design, which we have used in our ESX IP storage testbeds for NFS and iSCSI
performance for many years.
• Present examples of analyzing packet traces to solve ESX performance issues for NFSv41, software
iSCSI over IPv6, and hardware iSCSI.